“How can we know what to do when we are ignorant of our origins? Histories, that’s what we study. Ancient histories that uncover secrets we never even thought to be curious about.”
–Andis Hawkwing
Friday knocked on the door and then opened it and sat down on the now uncluttered desk a ham sandwich and a glass of wine.
Aurora looked up from her book on the history of Fantastics in the Forbidden Forest. “What? Are you serving now as well as cooking?”
“If I didn’t, I fully believe none of you would take the time to eat,” Friday replied with a mock-stern look.
“Well there may be some truth to that. We’ve all been… distracted these last two days.”
Friday sat down in a neighboring chair and looked again at the walls of books in the library. She looked, too, at the volume Aurora had set down. It was a history of Fantastics in the Forbidden Forest. A closer look revealed that it was written as a book of myths, legends, stories for grandparents to tell children before bed. It even included some rather interesting illustrations.
“Can such a book be useful?” Friday asked as she turned the pages.
“Oh, yes,” Aurora answered, “Even in the Forest there are legends, there are those Fantastics which have not been seen for centuries. That is why the work Andis and Raine do is so important to everyone. Folktales often have an element of truth and not all Fantastics are as friendly even as some like the Silverwinds. The bar for friendliness there, as you know, is not set too terribly high.”
Friday laughed. “No, it isn’t.”
She rose and began to run her hands along the spines of the shelved books and papers. Her fingers came across another history, that of the kings and queens of Oriana. The comment of Count Fenris ran through her mind.
“May I ask you… What did Count Fenris mean when he asked if the dark Fantastic might be related to you?”
“You really are the most perceptive young person I’ve ever met.”
Aurora put down her sandwich and drunk some wine. “It’s my shame. The first dark Fantastic ever in the line of the Kingdom. When the Forest houses heard it, they suggested ever so sensitively that I be suppressed, shall we say.”
Friday’s gaze was steady on the queen as she continued. ”It has taken years of tenacious willpower to prove that I could be more than what I am and that my darkness would not block out the Kingdom of the Dawn. It is still my stigma and once a year I go out to the western Forest and I transform into shadow to ensure that I am still able to control it. General Luhan accompanies me and has done since I was a child, taking with him a rifle with which he is an excellent shot.”
“I see,” Friday answered softly.
“Yes, I believe you do.” Aurora’s gaze was piercing and solemn. “So you can understand the consternation you engender. The opportunity you offer.”
“But you have come so far with such strength.”
“And I grow weary. But I don’t know yet what you are. I must be careful.”
“Yes, you must.”
#
The trees grew even denser in the Hawkwing flying grounds, if that were possible. Andis and Friday stood at the bow looking out.
“I’m concerned,” Andis confessed, “There are histories here of which we are not aware.”
“Wasn’t it you who said that our world is fraught with secrets?”
Andis laughed. “Yes, but up until now I’ve been privy to all of them. You constitute a real problem. First of all, as a Fantastic I must be concerned with the power you seem to possess. I can find no indication of anyone like you in the histories. Second, I don’t know how much Vale knows about you or why he is seeking you. For all we know, Fenris has sent him word of where you are. And third, a monarch has been for all intents and purposes dethroned and her enemy sits in her place. This is a mess.”
“Perhaps, then, we should not bring trouble into your house. Perhaps we should skip over the Hawkwing flying grounds. Try and find a Fantastic who might know about the kind of creature I am.”
“You may have a point. My instinct tells me that Fenris will have known were we were going. Even now… Yes, you may be right. I’ll talk to Raine and Aurora.”
Andis took a step towards her friends; just a step was all it took and then the arrows rained down from the cloudy sky, silently striking here the deck, there the balloons that made the dirigible float. And suddenly everyone was alive with motion, a queer sort of energy it seemed to Friday’s bleary eyes, running here and there, Andis transforming and soaring downward precisely, much like an arrow herself. A mass of Hawkwings erupted from the trees towards the source of the onslaught and still the air-cutting arrows rained on the Dirigible. And then, the cries of the Hawkwings echoing everywhere, the rain stopped. Friday looked down, dizzily, overboard but the dense trees blocked her view. She swayed because she couldn’t help swaying. And then she slipped over ever so easily, ever so gently. She heard the air rustling her clothes, she heard Rain and Aurora call her name, and for the second time, her world went dark.
#
The din was awful when Friday awoke. There were lamps all around, wherever she was, and people kept talking. She raised her hands to cover her eyes but saw the dark, black veins that now ran through the right one. She sat up quickly. Her left one was unaffected for now, but she felt sure that it wouldn’t be for long. A piercing pain attacked her shoulder as she tried to readjust herself on the bed on which she had been lain. Her right shoulder was covered in a bandage. The blood was beginning to soak through it. But the blood was black, too. Friday got to her feet, feeling dizzy again, and felt the walls towards the door and out towards the main room from where the noise was coming. She opened the door to find several honey-eyed wolves tied up to the columns that held p the wooden roof of the house. Raine, Andis, and Aurora stopped their conversation and looked at her. Several others populated the large room, sharp eyed men and women with short hair like feathers and sharp noses, Hawkwings. Friday leaned against the door.
Aurora was the first to speak. “Are you alright, Friday?”
Friday felt that if she were to speak, somehow her voice would be too powerful for the house to hold. She felt strangely powerful all over. She merely nodded. Her strength betrayed her just then. Herlegs gave out and she slipped down the doorway. Her friends rushed to prop her up.
“Don’t,” she bellowed. The house echoed with it. “Don’t,” she repeated more quietly, “I could hurt you.”
Somehow, her friends all understood immediately the implications of that. Friday spotted the young Fenris wolf that had attacked them in Silverwind territory. She rose and walked slowly towards him.
“Well, Fenris wolf,” she whispered, “Have you had your revenge?”
He spat at her. “Vale swore the poison would kill you. And I risked my life to be the one to shoot you with it.”
“Well he lied,” Friday replied her hand hovering quietly over his forehead, “But I could kill you. It would be so easy.”
Again the room was deathly still. Friday removed her hand and placed it by her side. “What have you done?”
“I’ve done my duty,” he answered spitefully.
Friday walked outside. The woods were darkening rapidly. Friday put her hands on a nearby tree to steady herself. She didn’t feel at all like herself. She felt strangely knowing and ignorant all at once. She felt ancient. Aurora had followed and stood now beside her.
“It began so simply,” Friday replied, “I was going to be the assistant to the foremost Fantastic researchers. That was all.”
“I truly am sorry that things have turned out in this way.”
Friday laughed. “I’m not sad or disappointed. In fact, these days I’m finding it difficult to feel such things. I am curious. I’ve spent my life as Friday the servant. And now I feel powerful and dangerous. I could have killed that Fenris wolf without any hint of remorse. I know I could have. Just a touch and I could have taken everything. Should anyone have this much power?”
“I’m one for thinking that there a reason for everything. And if you truly possess this incredible power to steal the lifeforce of Fantastics, someone, somewhere knows why.”
Stumble It!
